This invention relates to a connector which is provided with a lock portion used to lock a mating state of the connector with a mating connector.
A connector of this type is, for example, disclosed in JPA2014-127433 (Patent Document 1). As shown in FIGS. 17 to 19, a connector 900 of Patent Document 1 has a connector body 910, lock members 920, a tab 930 and a holding member 940. The lock members 920 are attached to the connector body 910. The connector body 910 and the tab 930 are held by the holding member 940. As understood from FIGS. 18 and 19, the connector body 910 is relatively unmovable with respect to the holding member 940 while the tab 930 is relatively movable with respect to the holding member 940 in a front-rear direction (an X-direction). The lock members 920 are each provided with an operated portion 922 while the tab 930 is provided with an operation portion 932. When the tab 930 is positioned at a front limitation position (FIG. 18), the operated portions 922 of the lock members 920 are located above an upper surface 912 of the connector body 910 and protrude upward (in a positive Z-direction). At this time, lock portions 924 are positioned at a locked position to protrude from the upper surface 912 by a predetermined amount. When the tab 930 is pulled backward (in a negative X-direction) (FIG. 19), the operation portion 932 of the tab 930 pushes down the operated portions 922 of the lock members 920 within the connector body 910. As a result, the lock portions 924 are moved to a released position which is located downward (in a negative Z-direction) of the locked position.
In the connector 900 disclosed in Patent Document 1, the tab 930 which is relatively movable with respect to the holding member 940 is positioned inside the holding member 940 in part. Accordingly, the connector has a problem that assembly ability is inferior.